


Well, we'll still be there (when your war is over)

by hiraethaf



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Ahsoka raises the twins, Baby Leia Organa, Baby Luke Skywalker, Gen, Mostly Gen, Post-Order 66 (Star Wars), cannot emphasise enough how platonic rex and ahsoka are, other characters will be involved later but it might be a while so i'm not tagging them yet, rex raises the twins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27704038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiraethaf/pseuds/hiraethaf
Summary: Neither of them, it seemed, were taught how to deal with emotional fallout from others let alone themselves. And now there was a new reason for sleeplessness. The twins.Rex had never held an infant before and though Ahsoka had, that was not the same as knowing how to be suddenly responsible for two. But they would work it out, they had to, who else was there left to do it for them?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Well, we'll still be there (when your war is over)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting the intro to this in the middle of hell deadlines for my masters degree so it might be a hot minute for the next chapter, apologies.
> 
> Warning for character death: Padme's death is mentioned in the intro chapter, it doesn't go into major detail.  
> May come back and edit when no longer in deadlines brain fog.

When the message came through on her encrypted comm unit Ahsoka had felt hope for less than a second before a force warning sent a feeling of cold dread curling down her spine. 

She had been unable to get through to anyone, not Anakin or Obi-Wan or Master Plo, on the secure coded frequency, and she and Rex had deemed it too risky to try any other forms of communication. She no longer had access to Jedi channels and the GAR ones were out of the question, so when Padme’s message came through, a simple set of co-ordinates signed with a P, she felt relief that someone she loved was not only still out there but had also not forgotten her. And then the force issued its warning, Padme was in danger. Still she had to go find her, even if it were not what she would have done anyway, the force was insistent on it. She expected Rex to point out the inherent dangers in blindly following a set of co-ordinates given everything that was going on, especially when she mentioned the bad feeling she had about it all, but he offered no resistance just furrowed his brow with worry and logged them into the navcomputer. 

They had replaced their ship at the first opportunity and their new one was larger but older, and it had only been Ahsoka’s skill with mechanics that made it a viable purchase at all. As it was it was slow and only just capable of jumping to hyperspace. These issues meant it took longer than it should have for them to reach their co-ordinates, coming out of hyperspace some ten hours later, in the middle of nowhere, over a non-descript planet that had no record of ever having supported sentient life. There were no other planets nearby, no space stations or shipping-lanes, just an empty blackness. Even the planet’s star was distant and dim. According to the sensors the atmosphere outside was not ideal, but also not harmful if you didn’t spend too long breathing it in, and it seemed to be the home of nothing more complex than some miserable looking plant-life. Other than, of course, one shiny Nubian ship. 

Following the co-ordinates she had been sent led Ahsoka to touching the ship down in a clearing opposite the expensive vessel, which vexingly sat quiet and seemingly unmanned. There were no obvious sign that something was wrong, and there was a lack of any apparent damage to the other ship, but Ahsoka’s earlier bad feeling was only getting worse pooling and stagnating in her stomach. Something on that ship was definitely not right. 

"I’ve tried pinging them, no one is answering," Rex said coming to stand beside her where she still sat in the pilot’s chair. He was exhausted, they both were, and the least put together she’d ever seen him, half in and half out of his armour. Gauntlets and chest plate intact, helmet held under one arm, but the rest discarded. Truthfully, she felt he was holding up far better than the circumstances deserved and she herself was coasting off of his weak stability in lieu of having any of her own. The force still screamed painfully when she tried to let down her shields even an inch and she had never felt more alone in her life. She had tried just the once to reach out along their old training bond to Anakin only to find it painfully torn, a gaping wound in the force she hadn’t the fortitude to heal at the moment. She had put up shields around it while blinking back tears, what else could she do? It was cowardly but she hadn’t been brave enough to try the same with Obi-Wan, fearful of a repeated event. That, and she couldn’t imagine one surviving without the other. 

"Let’s go," she answered finally, pushing up from her seat. Even though she’d only had them again for a short amount of time she already missed her lightsabers, she patted the blaster at her hip in reassurance instead as she made her way towards the hatch. If she’d known what it was that they would find on the other ship she might have taken a moment more to reinforce her shields and centre herself, but she could not, and so breaking down in tears, it turned out, was a completely unavoidable reaction. But perhaps no amount of preparation would have made a difference given what they would find there. 

… 

Rex thought he could still smell the smoke even all these days later, the burning wreckage of the Venator first, and then the hasty pyre Ahsoka had constructed for the senator down on that uninhabited spit of rock that barely constituted a planet. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers, and tried to ignore the headache building in his temples. 

He wished he could sleep, any attempt he’d made in the last week had ended in waking shouting from nightmares. Ahsoka was no better, and he wished he knew what to do when he heard her stifling sobs in the middle of the night cycle. Neither of them, it seemed, were taught how to deal with emotional fallout from others let alone themselves. And now there was a new reason for sleeplessness. The twins. 

The small wailing blood covered infants held slackly in their mother’s arms were so far from what either of them had expected to find on that ship, yet there they were. Padme had lived just long enough to impart their names then she closed her eyes and she did not open them again despite Ahsoka’s pleading. Her throat had been ringed with darkened bruises, her lungs smoke damaged and the trauma of giving birth prematurely out there all by herself had been too much, still she had managed to hang on long enough to see Luke and Leia safe in Ahsoka’s arms before she let herself let go. 

Rex had never held an infant before and though Ahsoka had, that was not the same as knowing how to be suddenly responsible for two. But they would work it out, they had to, who else was there left to do it for them? It was just them now, for better or worse. 

He knew that before this Ahsoka had been planning for them to split up, he had been preparing his own arguments ready to attempt to dissuade her, now however the idea no longer seemed to be on the table. Though what the two of them were going to do with an empire on their heels, no back-up, and two tiny dependent beings relying on them he didn’t know. They would have to start planning soon, he was good at planning, he’d figure something out. Force help them all. 

... 

“The problem is we’re both too recognisable. Well,” Rex paused to hike Luke further up his shoulder from where he was slipping, “I am. More or less.” In that there were thousands of faces like his but he would easily be known as a deserter – funny how he would have been insulted by that once. Not the kind of funny that lent towards laughter unfortunately. Ahsoka was different, a change of clothing style and she’d probably be fine away from the core worlds, she had experience now on laying low as a civilian. 

“We’ll need to go somewhere that wasn’t touched by the war,” she agreed, she had Leia in a makeshift sling on her front and was absentmindedly stroking her short tufts of hair, “somewhere rural in the outer-rim would probably be the best bet.” 

“A backwater,” Rex deadpanned. 

Ahsoka wanted to smile or maybe smirk and turn the moment into banter but she didn’t quite have the energy, instead she sighed. 

“Yeah, a backwater.” 

... 

The planet they eventually agreed to feel out certainly constituted a backwater. It had one spaceport on the whole planet, and calling it a port was being generous. It was a good thing they’d already traded their GAR issue ship for something more nondescript because there would have been no way to sell it discretely there. And even if there had been, they would not have been able to find a buyer. 

This far out they would struggle to keep up with news, they had all but cut off their chances of finding other survivors, but it was the trade-off they’d reluctantly agreed on for the twin's safety. The planet was mostly agricultural but with too low a yield to export goods, there was little to interest anyone from the wider galaxy to travel there, no particular landmarks or rare resources, off-world trade was basically non-existent and it was home to a smattering of humanoid species most of whom had settled there three generations ago when it was first inhabited. What drew the settlers there, and kept them, was exactly its sleepy-slow mediocrity, the promise that wider galactic affairs would pass it by. It didn’t even have a voice in the Senate. 

The problem, Ahsoka mused, was that it was _too_ quiet. Their arrival would be remarked upon, they would not be able to slip as easily into obscurity among the inhabitants as they would be able to somewhere busier. Still it would do for now, even if not for the long term. 

They did not put down in the solitary spaceport. Instead they decided to leave the ship hidden amongst the rocky hills some way outside of a settlement that in size was somewhere between a largeish town and a smallish city. It was an hour’s walk in from there, but they split before they reached the city limits, Rex would go gather supplies and Ahsoka with a baby tied one to her front and one to her back, armed with jedi mind tricks she hoped would not be necessary, would go in search of information. 

Ahsoka could admit to herself, in the privacy of her own head, that she didn’t like splitting up, the moment Rex was out of her sight she felt tense and uneasy. Worse was that the force had offered her no warnings, that these were just her own feelings. She really needed to meditate. She still could not make herself let down her shields enough to do so. _Fear_. She may no longer have been a Jedi but she knew the dangers it brought. 

She let herself reach out just enough for Luke and Leia’s bright presences to wash over her and it calmed her down. Rex would be fine, of course he would, there was no one she knew more competent. 

It wouldn’t _quite_ be the form of information gathering she was used to. The addition of two babies made sure of that but strolling around the market she managed to strike up conversation with a few mothers who cooed at the twins and didn’t pry further when she told them that their parents had been killed in the war. She was pointed towards the owner of a small house on the edge of town who was looking to rent and she learned of several businesses who might welcome a skilled mechanic. Some wanted to ask about the war, she could tell, news was slow coming out here, but they all held back, at least for now, given a little more time their curiosity would need to be sated. 

For better or worse this would have to be home for a while. 

**Author's Note:**

> I imagined Padme woke during Obi-Wan and Anakin's duel crawled onto her ship and got out of there, without much thought besides /needing to leave/ immediately. Obi-Wan will have to take Anakin's ship when he eventually leaves I guess. edit: oops no idea what happened to c3po in this situation, maybe Padme left him on Coruscant and he came into Bail's ownership that way?


End file.
